Two brothers transform success on the gridiron into spa sales.

When Boomer Esiason has trouble with one of his hot tubs, the ex-Cincinnati Bengals quarterback calls on his old roommate Jim Riggs for a quick refresher.

Riggs, the general manager of Hot Springs Pools & Spas in Greenville, S.C., was a tight end with the
Bengals from 1987 to 1992, but retired a few years later when his wife became pregnant with triplets. Still, his association with football, and the lessons he picked up on the gridiron, are evident in his current profession.

For instance, Riggs’ company recently built an inground pool
for his former coach Sam Wyche, who took the Bengals to the Super
Bowl in 1989. And a number of his past teammates, as well as the
team’s head trainer, regularly buy chemicals, covers and
filters from the store, which drop-ships orders to the
Bengals’ office.

“I’ve got hot tubs that I sold in the early ’90s
in Cincinnati, and these knuckleheads still have them,” Riggs
says, “and they call here wanting new heaters for them. I
say, ‘Buy a new one!” but they
don’t.”

He may have a tough time convincing retired ballplayers to upgrade
their tubs, but Riggs, along with his brother Matt, have built a
profitable business nonetheless.

Matt Riggs, who himself played college football at Clemson
University (S.C.), founded Hot Springs Pools & Spas in 1989; he
had been inspired by the therapeutic benefits of hot tubs after
their father used one to treat a circulation problem associated
with diabetes.

The business would enjoy sustained growth over the next 16 years,
during which time the Greenville store relocated to its current
25,000-square-foot showroom. The brothers opened a second store, in
Asheville, N.C., in 1996.

Today, the company is fully diversified, offering a full line of
hot tubs by Watkins, as well as gunite and vinyl-liner pools,
service and renovations, and backyard amenities such as fireplaces
and kitchens.

The company’s success, Riggs says, can be traced to the
brothers’ backgrounds. They’ve developed a staff, or
team, of more than 60 members, many of them with 10 years or more
of service. And there’s very little turnover. Health
insurance and a 401(k) are among the benefits of employment, and a
base salary plus other perks help spur collaboration in sales and
unity among the employees.

To promote healthy competition, Riggs introduced store-vs.-store
monthly sales incentives, such as iPads or monetary bonuses, for
whichever location sells the most of a particular product. The
result is a sales force that works well together and
isn’t focused on overselling one model.

“We work as a team and pay attention to key words that the
customers give [us] in order to try and close the deal,” he
says. “The game is ever changing, and each customer is
totally different, so you have to game plan [for that]. We have to
adjust on the go.”

That’s not to say Riggs and his team haven’t dropped
the ball on a few occasions, including a time when they missed
sales opportunities for a hot tub saltwater sanitization
system.

But as it would for any good student of the game, the experience
taught Riggs to remain active in his dealer network by
communicating regularly with his manufacturers. He also better
familiarizes himself with products now by testing them himself,
which helps him avoid becoming “lackadaisical.”

“It’s easy to get so comfortable that you are not
showing people cutting-edge stuff. I see it all the time in our
stores,” he says. “It’s hard trying to teach an
old dog a new trick. It’s almost like you’re upset
because they sold [too much of one] hot tub, but you’re not.
You just want to be diversified because, in this day and age, the
manufacturer wants to see every line doing well. … They are
looking at those numbers, too.”

In fact, this versatility has proven effective even through the
current economy. When Riggs noticed sales of his higher-priced spas
were lagging, he added price-point models to his lineup. They
quickly became top sellers during the recession.

Despite a dip last year, December was still the second best month
in company history, Riggs says, adding that 2012 has started strong
in spa sales and new-pool construction.

What’s more, the brothers are familiar faces in the
community. Both are full-time coaches for the JL Mann Academy high
school team in Greenville. Jim’s sons, incidentally, are on
the squad, and already have garnered attention from multiple
colleges, including Clemson, Penn State and Vanderbilt
University.

Riggs’ visibility has helped boost sales of hot tubs and
pools to parents, but it’s also allowed him to offer his
neighbors a healthier lifestyle. And that, he says, has always been
the basis of Hot Springs’ business model.“We really
sell the therapeutic value,” he adds. “We sell it
because we believe in it.”